September 17, 1935 - November 10, 2001
THE WORK GOES ON... THE MOVEMENT ENDURES...
I was inspired by the metaphors that Kesey created throughout his life. The bus that traveled Further symbolized a journey being more important that the destination. When I travel, I try to be in the now, appreciating and realizing that one step left or right can totally alter awareness of the moment.
You would appreciate to know that Kesey snubbed the past as well. He hated his life being framed only in the sixties. He carried his in-the-moment performance art to his dying day. I was lucky to travel with him and the Pranksters to England in the Summer of 1999. Kesey hyped the latest prank (any notion out to tweak the mainstream, conservative flow of society) that the wizard Merlin would appear before the millennium. Kesey was both a physical and metaphysical magician. He did the weirdest stage shows and plays that didn't make much common sense of any kind, but before each performance he would chastise the audience on its feet saying "we are not interested in having an audience, we want a tribe of spiritual warriors! We are not interested in parties, we want a gathering of the tribes." Kesey was always the Randle P. McMurphy (Revolutions Per Minute) of his "Cuckoo's Nest" fame, challenging and inspiring today's youth to look at things differently, and to never trust the Big Nurse.
Just recently on his website IntrepidTrips.com he wrote about today's times: "The men in suits are telling us what the men in uniforms are going to do to the men in turbans if they don't turn over the men in hiding. If everything has changed (as we all knew that it had on that first day) why does it all wear the same old outfits and say the same old words?"
I knew him for only six years, but in that short time it was a long strange trip. I will miss him... Long live Ken Kesey!
Hazardous Media, Inc.
"Kesey goes Further to UK, outside London, August 2001.
Photo by A.J. Catoline
Ken Kesey died (Nov 10) and went to attend his funeral in Oregon. Went up with OB Babbs, was quite a moving tribute. True to his colors to his final days, his casket was swirled in a psychedelic tye-dye. He was buried out back behind his farm. Kesey was a great inspiration on my life, an inspiration that moved me in a new direction in the early years of my life. In making Timothy Leary's Last Trip, I began a career in editing and met some wonderful people and went on some amazing adventures.
(the website inspired by the Intrepid Traveler and his Band of Merry Pranksters)
